Amid fighting, Syria votes on constitution

Monday

Feb 27, 2012 at 12:01 AMFeb 27, 2012 at 11:33 AM

BEIRUT - As fighting churned on in major cities yesterday, Syria held a referendum on a new constitution, an offer of reform that critics have dismissed as too little, too late and Western leaders called a farce.

BEIRUT — As fighting churned on in major cities yesterday, Syria held a referendum on a new constitution, an offer of reform that critics have dismissed as too little, too late and Western leaders called a farce.

The continued attacks by government forces, which killed dozens yesterday, and the lack of outside observers also raised questions about the legitimacy of the vote.

“We have an election in a state living through a war?” said Arif Dalila, a prominent dissident. “ Who will participate in this referendum? Who will monitor the results? Who will trust the numbers emerging from this referendum?”

Some polling places appeared utterly deserted, while at others, opinion was divided.

But state television broadcast a barrage of public support for the new constitution with an endless number of voters hailing the document for ushering in an era of freedom and democracy. Some suggested that voters should take part as a mark of “steadfastness” in the face of the nearly year-old insurrection, which the government of President Bashar Assad calls a foreign plot to destabilize the country.

In the southern Damascus district of Ma’adamiah, no voters appeared until about 1 p.m., and most were municipal workers. Others scoffed.

“The Assad regime is arresting hundreds of our sons and brothers, has killed and injured hundreds, so we don’t care about this constitution,” said Ziad, 25, who gave only his first name out of fear of retribution. “Syrians will write their real constitution after we finish this regime.”

In downtown Damascus, where there were marginally more voters, Hala, a 36-year-old woman from the same Alawite clan as the president, said she was voting for a “new Syria.”

“This new constitution will shift Syria into the ranks of the democratic countries,” she said.

Opposition organizations broadcast videos that seemed to show demonstrations throughout the country against the vote. Videos posted on YouTube showed tires burning, a poster saying “We step on the new constitution,” and people chanting “Down with Bashar al-Assad.”

The Local Coordinating Committees, an anti-government group, said that attacks by government soldiers killed 55 people yesterday, most of them in the besieged city of Homs. The violence prevented voting there, and in several Damascus suburbs government thugs were unleashed to stamp out anti-referendum protests, the group said.

The new constitution is the cornerstone of Assad’s plan to address the anti-government protests that have convulsed the country since last March.

The referendum was apparently moved forward to try to counter the rising violence and to provide cover for allies such as Russia and China, which have objected to outside intervention, saying that government offers of reform must be given a chance.

The document’s most important changes include removing the political monopoly of the ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party and introducing term limits to the presidency.

Those changes came with giant caveats, however. Although the president would be limited to two seven-year terms, the clock would start only when Assad’s current term expires in 2014, allowing him to serve two more terms and potentially rule until he was 62.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who joined delegates from 60 countries and organizations meeting in Tunis, Tunisia, last week to call for Assad’s ouster, dismissed the vote as an empty gesture.

“It’s a phony referendum that is going to be used by Assad to justify what he is doing to other Syrians,” Clinton said.